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NASCAR drivers (and Jeff Foxworthy) say the darndest things

Carl Edwards did his best to put his Chase predicament into perspective on Friday at Atlanta. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Just when you thought Sprint Cup drivers (and visitors) never say anything interesting during media Q&A sessions on race weekends. These snippets are from Friday's session at Atlanta Motor Speedway:

“[Fighting among drivers] is always fun to watch. I hate being involved in it and don't like that part of it, but I like watching. Everybody does; it's human nature. I think fans loved the helmet toss and I thought that was cool… although I wish it wasn't being tossed at me because it meant me was upset with me. Everybody wants to see good racing and a competitive finish, but everybody – whether people admit or not--likes to see wrecks and guys go over the edge. That's been part of the sport for a lot of years.” – Former champion Matt Kenseth, who crashed with Tony Stewart last weekend at Bristol. Moments later, standing by his wrecked car, Stewart flung his helmet as Kenseth drove slowly past the scene.

“I think the fans love emotions [between drivers]. They were cheering like heck for me to go up the track and do something awesome, or at least it was awesome in their eyes. I'm just glad I didn't give him the finger, because that's what I was going to do. And I've heard that's a fine. I'm glad I had an epiphany at the last second to point my (right index) finger instead of raise the middle one.” – Danica Patrick, who wagged her finger accusingly at Regan Smith after they crashed last weekend at Bristol.

“I sympathize with drivers who're close but might not make the Chase, especially teammates. In one respect I sympathize for Kyle Busch not being in the Chase or not being in [yet]. In another, he's such a threat that in some ways it's a dodged bullet if he doesn't make it. And I say that as a compliment to him and his team. But, I sympathize [because] I know I'm not immune to it. We've been very fortunate to have had success and consistent success, but I wake up every year fearing I might not make the Chase. I use that as motivation.” – Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, the only driver to make all nine Chases.

“In nine or 10 days, Richmond will be over and we'll be either in the Chase or out. That made my heart rate go up just a little bit when I realized, 'Hey, we've got to do this; we've got to make it happen.' But I've been doing this long enough now to have a better perspective and feel I can accept whatever happens. But I haven't started to think about how I'll feel if I don't make it. If I have to, I hope I can deal with it in a good manner.” – Carl Edwards, winless and 12th in points, and perilously close to not making the Chase after being series runner-up last year.

“That 1979 Daytona 500 fight [with the Allisons and Cale Yarborough] still resonates with fans, so I wonder why NASCAR won't let that moment be fully relived. People like emotion. Every other sport has a cooling-off period; you get time to calm down. But our deal's a little different and we don't have that. It's not like one play is a bad play and you go on to another play. The bad deal for us is that we're done for the day.” – Three-time and defending series champion Tony Stewart, who crashed with Kenseth last weekend at Bristol.

“It's definitely stressful. You don't work [this] hard all year to suffer along through a season and miss the Chase. [If] we miss the Chase we're just going to be another race car out there running around in circles for the rest of the year. That's what it feels like and we didn't want to be in that position. We want to make the Chase and we want to go out there and race for a championship and make circles for a reason and make circles for wins and what-have-you. It's just been a frustrating season, a tough one that's tried to bring us down and there really hasn't been too much to be excited about this year.” – Kyle Busch, who's 13th in points and has one win, and hasn't locked in a Chase spot.

“I'm sure everybody watching the races has somebody's neck they would like to wring. Maybe they live vicariously that emotion is some way. There's probably a co-worker or two they wouldn't mind running their fist into his race. It's probably more likely than you imagine. We're inside the car and limited to our physical emotions and body language driving the car. But the fans really connect when we get out of the car and do things like what Tony did last weekend.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“It's a redneck's dream come true to have your name on a race car. … I'm two decisions away from [doing] drywall. … My wife grew up in Louisiana. You've seen 'Swamp People?' That's her family reunion. … Whenever I'm about to run out of material, I go through the infield at a NASCAR race. You can't make that stuff up. … Somebody said I should work on my accent. Well, a quarter of the country talks like me, so why should I change just to suit the other three-fourths? … If you ask a question in the media center without your shoes on, you could be a redneck. … In my office there's a black-and-white picture of me sitting on the couch at the Johnny Carson Show. To me, that was Mount Everest. Johnny was Caesar: thumb up or thumb down.” – Jeff Foxworthy, whose “Grit Chips” sponsored Friday night's Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.